LOCAL/STATE

The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, September 10, 2002 - 3

CAMPUS Gymnastics championship

Beatin' the heat

4

Music seminar will
be held at North
Campus recital hall
Perlman Music Program director
Toby Perlman will discuss "Nurturing
Talent in Young Musicians" on Thurs-
day at 12:30 p.m. at the University
School of Music Organ Recital Hall on
North Campus.
Art exhibit used to
make statement
on recycling uses
Chicago artist and environmental
activist Dan Peterman will lecture
at the Art & Architecture Auditori-
um on North Campus at 5 p.m.
Thursday. His projects commenton
the utility of recycling programs
and include a 100-foot-long picnic
table made of recycled plastic.
Admission is free.
Exhibit to feature
New York City
University Architecture Prof.
David Scobey and art history Prof.
Rebecca Zurier will present a lec-
ture, titled "New York: The View
from Here," Thursday at 7 p.m. at
0 the Museum of Art. They will dis-
cuss historical photographs of New
York City. Admission is free.
Sailing Club hosts
meeting this week
The University Sailing Club will
hold its first mass meeting Thurs-
day at 7:45 p.m., where prospective
members can learn about the club's
boats and other activities.
It will be held at 120 Dennison.
Admission is free.
Meningitis shots
administered this
week on campus
University Health Systems and
the Michigan Visiting Nurses will
administer meningitis shots at vari-
ous locations on campus from 10:30
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. today through Fri-
day. Today, they will be at Bursley
Residence Hall and Mosher-Jordan
Residence Hall. Tomorrow, they
will be at Markley Residence Hall.
Thursday the shots will be offered
at the Chemistry Building, and on
Friday, they will be available at
South Quad Residence Hall. Cost of
the shots is $75.
Ring of Steel will
host info, night
The Ring of Steel will be holding
its mass meeting today at 7 p.m. at
the Power Room of the Student The-
atre Arts Complex for everyone
interested in learning about the art
of swordplay, as well as learning
martial arts and stuntwork. Ring of
Steel members perform at Renais-
sance Festivals and Haunted Houses.
Hillel hosts first
Jewish women's
meeting of year
The Jewish Women's Forum spon-
sored by University Hillel will hold its
first meeting of the year at the Michi-
gan Union at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Picasso featured
in museum exhibit
The life and career of artist Pablo
Picasso will be explored at an exhibi-

tion featuring 31 of his works, includ-
ing drawings, prints and oil paintings
at the Museum of Art. It will be held
in the Alumni Memorial Hall at 10
a.m. tomorrow.
Poets compete at
Michigan Union
There will be a U-Club Poetry Slam
Thursday at the Michigan Union at 9
p.m. A poetry slam is a competition
between teams of poets who compete
for the title and are judged by random
audience members. Held every other
Thursday, this week's featured poet is
Lite Foot.
ArtsBreak offers
students relief
from studying
University students who enjoy arts
and crafts can attend ArtsBreak, held
every Tuesday at the Michigan Union
Underground 7 p.m. to 12 a.m. This
week's project uses flag pins and
beads. The activities are free.

'rings missing from office

By Jordan Schrader
Daily Staff Reporter
In her two years as a Michigan gymnast, LSA junior
Elise Ray has won plenty of honors and awards, including
last season's balance beam national title.
But rings commemorating the Big Ten Championship she
and her teammates won in March are now missing.
The Department of Public Safety received a report Friday,
that the team's National Collegiate Athletic Association Big
Ten Championship rings were missing from an unlocked
office in the Donald R. Shepherd Women's Gymnastics
Center on State Street.
An investigation found that 18 rings were gone, DPS
spokeswoman Diane Brown said.
"Whether they were stolen or not is still under investiga-
tion," she said.
The rings were under a desk in Coach Beverly Plocki's
office and might have been accidentally thrown in the trash,
Ray said.
She said Plocki called DPS to report the missing rings.

The rings are valued at $300 each.
"They still were the property of the Athletic Department
because they had not been issued to the student athletes,"
Brown said.
Although the 15 team members received their rings at the
Aug. 31 dedication of the new gymnastics center, they had
to return them immediately because of flaws in the rings.
Plocki was about to replace the rings when they disap-
peared, Ray said.
"We're all really anxious to get them, just because it's
quite an honor to wear them, but unfortunately we just have
to be a little patient," she said.
Team member Alison Rudisi, a Kinesiology junior,
down-played the significance of the rings.
"Knowing that you won Big Ten is more important than
having a ring on your finger," she said.
The championship was Michigan's fourth consecutive
Big Ten title and its 11th in the 20-year history of the com-
petition.
The team went on to compete in the NCAA Champi-
onships, finishing in seventh place.

JONATHON TRIEST/Daily
Drew Levin, LSA junior, spins in his room yesterday afternoon.

Windsor government
hopes to legalize the use
of marijuana by next year

By C. Price Jones
Daily Staff Reporter
The nearest locale of exotic clubs, alcohol and gambling
that caters to 19-year-old college students may be adding
another party favor to the list of legal entertainment marijua-
na. As soon as next semester, pot could be made available to
Michiganders via Windsor, Canada.
Concerning students' traveling to Windsor, Ann Arbor
Police Department Sgt. Blackwell said that the best thing to
do is to remain in Windsor until sober.
"If marijuana is legalized in Windsor, it's not going to
change our enforcement activity," Blackwell said.
"We can write you for a minor in possession for the alcohol
in your system," he said.
"If someone were being disorderly, swinging on a stop
sign, they might get a ticket for being disorderly and the
minor in possession for the alcohol even though you may
have consumed it in Windsor. The same goes for marijuana."
Despite the fact that marijuana could become legal in
Windsor, the ease of buying pot in Ann Arbor outweighs the
trouble of driving to Windsor and possibly being searched or
detained at customs checkpoints if they are more heavily
enforced.
"The legalization of pot in Windsor is not going to cause a
huge upswing of students going there," Angelica Leone,

chairman for the University chapter of the Students for a Sen-
sible Drug Policy. "A lot of people already go there to drink,
so people will just spend more money if they go there."
Leone added that even though pot is not that expensive in
Ann Arbor, some students might go to Windsor for the atmos-
phere and freedom, the similar environment as in Amsterdam.
She added that others would stay in Ann Arbor because
going through customs will be a hassle and coming back will
be an even greater hassle.
The Canadian government will decide sometime in the
next year if the Senate panel's recommendation to legalize
and regulate growth, sale and use of marijuana and hashish
should become law. However, if students can just as easily
buy marijuana in Ann Arbor, the new law's effect on the Uni-
versity will be diminished-if not made irrelevant.
"It's not hard to find weed here, so there's no point to go an
hour drive to Windsor," Engineering Senior Touseef Bhatti
said. "People are going to buy it anywhere they want to."
Bhatti added that people who had never smoked marijuana
before might be more likely to experiment in Windsor with-
out being arrested but others would just buy pot in Ann Arbor.
Other Canadian cities such as Vancouver have been known
to take a liberal stance concerning marijuana. According to
one study by a Toronto-based research group Compas, Inc.,
over 60 percent of the citizens of Vancouver believed that
..marijuana should be legalized.

JONATHON TRIESTIDail
Anneke Huntzicker, an LSA junior, shops around for a DVD lasf night. While DVD's
are the newest form of home entertainment technology, a replacement for them
could be on the way.
Hi~gh quality of new
video format could
compete with DVD

By Steve Nannes
For the Daily

Sales of DVD players in the Unit-
ed States jumped from 1.1 million
to 4 million between 1998 and
1999. In 2001, 12.7 million DVD
players were sold, and the number
is expected to be even higher next
year.
Despite the surge of DVD pro-
duction over the past four years, a
new product, Digital VHS, may
give DVDs a run for their money.
JVC has introduced a new, yet
familiar format for watching
movies. Digital VHS, or D-Theater,
is a tape deck that is designed not
only to bring higher quality to the
screen, but promises to wipe out
copyright infringements and make
it impossible to download movies
from the Internet.
Some students say they would
consider leaving DVDs behind if
Digital VHS offers noticeable
advantages even though some just
purchased a DVD player.
"I would consider buying it if the
quality is a lot better," LSA junior
Aadam Hussain said. "Once we got
our DVD player, we stopped using
tapes."
The new tape, which is the same
size and shape as a VHS tape,
requires a 75 gigabyte hard disk to
hold 30 minutes of video. This cre-
ates a major obstacle for Internet
lovers who download and burn their
favorite titles online.
The quality of the Digital VHS is
1,080 lines per screen width, com-
pared to around 500-600 for DVD
players and 240 for VHS tapes.
According to the JVC website, Dig-
ital VHS systems can record and play-
back High-Definition television
without losing the digital quality.
Despite JVC's confidence about
their newest video product, elec-
tronic retail stores are only in the
nrlmnr tca o ~ti>tn~

"Even if (Digital
VHS) is better
quality, if the price
isn't right,
customers won't
buy it."
- Scott Johnson
Record Xchange Manager
demands on the market.
Local video stores are also wary
of declaring Digital VHS the wave
of the future, like they did with
DVDs only four years ago.
Scott Johnson, manager of
Record Xchange on South Universi-
ty Avenue, said customer demand
will dictate the future of Digital
VHS, but he added the convenience
of DVDs may give them the edge.
"DVD will stick around," John-
son said.
"They are a lot easier to store.
But it depends on the customers.
Even if (Digital VHS) is better
quality, if the price isn't right, cus-
tomers won't buy it."
DVDs first hit the U.S. market in
March of 1997 at prices ranging
from $400-$600 per player.
DVD players are now available at
prices as low as $70, compared to
the Digital VHS recorders which
will cost about $1,000.
One concern for some students is
having to change formats from their
current DVDs to the new Digital
VHS tapes:
"I have too many DVDs as it is,"
LSA senior Michelle Huddleston
said.
"I'd be screwed if I had to change
it," Huddleston added, saying that